Spring Quarter Status Update

Greetings!
Nothing was written over spring break, but that will hopefully change this quarter! With any luck there will be a lot more updates on this blog, writing or art or whatever. This is going to be a really long random update, so without further ado, let's get to it!

Faescribble [link]
Over spring break last last week I did an iscribble collaboration with Forte-Rock and this is what came of it! More info on the deviantART page. (See link).

Camp NaNoWriMo and Dream's Edge
This is kind of like the National Novel Writing Month event in November where writers across the world gather to write 50K words in a month. In the relatively new Camp NaNoWriMo though, writers can decide on their own word count and work towards that goal "smack-dab in the middle of [our] crazy [lives]" (http://campnanowrimo.org/).

This April I'm aiming for 10K words, to contribute to my official NaNo from 2012. Originally called "Campus Curse" I've renamed it to use another old title: Edge. This part is called "Dreams". Yey!
Basically, a few college freshman are stuck on campus over the summer. One of these is Sonora Li, whose lifelong dream has been to fly and use magic. In her sleep she starts going to "Somnia" the "Land of Dreams" where she is able to use magic.

This month I hope to complete the first part of Sonora's journey in the Land of Dreams. In the original version this wasn't that much of a big deal, but one of my friends which read through the draft copy said that she was most intrigued by the events happening in the dream world and thought it was a good idea to really expand on it. Thus, I've decided to revamp the story before the June printing deadline with more of an emphasis on the Somnia-storyline and the tarot journey there.

For your entertainment, please enjoy these first 120 (of only 372) words!

--

She woke up in the middle of a tiled courtyard, surrounded by four grand stone arches marked with symbols overhead. The air was crisp and a little foggy, and only thickened beyond the courtyard’s arches. At her back was a plain wooden door that led into a stone building. She sat up blinking. What was this? Where was she? 

She looked down and blinked at the girl reflected in the mirror-like tile. For a moment she thought she was seeing another person, trapped inside the courtyard floor. The girl in the floor touched her face when she did. “Who—are you?” Even the echo in the courtyard seemed to make the girl in the floor speak when she did. 

--
As always, comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated!

Spring Quarter
I feel obligated to post my classes for these next 10 weeks:

• Molecular Biology: Same professor as Biochemistry, so I'm really excited for this. If only my book would come...Y.Y
• Organic Chemistry: I'm taking a tough professor, but she's a great lecturer, and a lot of my friends are taking her as well, so I figure I'll do my best. I really enjoy organic chemistry over general chemistry. Here, have a tosylate [link]. Great leaving groups, they are. 
• Organic Chemistry Lab: I usually detest lab, but last quarter I received my first A for a lab class so I'm excited to do it again. *Cough, not excited enough to do the lab report anytime before last minute obviously though* T_T
• Neurobiology: Ever since I took Consciousness in my freshman year I've been really interested in neuroscience. This class has been a little over my head even in week 1 (this is an alertalert abandon ship sign) but I'm determined to do well and delve into the subject more. 
• On a side note, I saw one of my TAs from last quarter in front of the lecture hall on Wednesday and he told me "You know you can buy a neuron from the bookstore, right?" 
• Being the oblivious fellow I am, I excitedly asked, "Really? Like...a single one? How would we..." *thinking how anyone would preserve and package a neuron.*
• And he must have thought I was a dolt for this because he clarified: "Yea, like a squishy pillow neuron. "
• You may now facepalm. 

So if I miss a weekly update, I am probably 

1. Cramming to finish writing a prelab or lab report
2. Reading feverishly for bio 
3. Reading feverishly for nuero
4. Doing ochem practice like there's no tomorrow (no idea how that makes sense, but we shall pretend it does).
5. Thinking of how to bottle a single neuron. (And I'm not talking about those giant 1mm squid axons either!)
6. Writing, drawing, reading manga, watching anime. 

Which leads me to my next point: 

SKIP BEAT IS AMAZING.
And my amazing I mean like Cardcaptor Sakura, Sword Art Online amazing. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to consult these links immediately:
[link] [and this] [the epitome of awesome] [this is epic as well] [this is pretty good] [epitome of epic]

Anime and Manga: 
So the reason I didn't really get anything written over spring break was because I was catching up with my TV shows and manga XD. I have a few comments on the awesomeness of each one. The links to each are above. If you can't figure out which is which, that's ok; they're all definitely worth watching/ reading.
My ships are also listed.

Skip Beat: I had started this a while back, but couldn't get past the first few chapters. This time, at the fervent recommendation and assurance of the literary quality of a fellow writer who should feel very pleased with herself, I pushed past the part I got stuck at before... and fell in love. Engaging action and story, topped with beautiful character development.
>Kyoko x Ren. Shou can go....away.

Sword Art Online (SAO): This was a while back, but I found it fascinating. I saw a random post on my friend's facebook and read the manga. Liked it enough to discover that there was an anime, watched it, loved it, and am now plodding ridiculously slowly through the light novel. A lot of insights on virtual reality, reality vs dream worlds, identity, morality and consciousness in general.
>Kirito x Asuna.

CardCaptor Sakura (CSS): By now I think anyone who knows me knows that CCS is the cutest thing since Hello Kitty. There were actually two people that recommended this to me, both of whom are very correct that I would enjoy it. Kudos.
>Sakura x Syaoran= OTP.

Persona 4 (P4): After almost a year of hearing my friends fangirl over this, I watched Persona 4. It was pretty incredible, and brought up a lot of insightful thoughts like SAO. Apparently the Animation couldn't go as much into the character development as the game, which was a little disappointing, but overall, definitely worth checking out.
>Chie x Yosuke,  Naoto x Kanji, and I want to say Yu x Yukiko. If it makes sense, Kuma and Nanako, but not romantically.

Once Upon a Time: This is a live action show on ABC about fairy tail character and their counterparts in Storybrooke, Maine. I love the connections between all the characters and how everything always ties together. It really exemplifies Lillian Hellman's quote "Nothing, of course, begins when you think it did."
>Rumplestilskin/ Gold x Belle, Snow White/ Mary Margaret x Prince/David, Emma x Baelfire, Regina x Daniel....basically all the canon. :X

Fairy Tail (FT): Another manga that I'm keeping up with. Very action-packed, with a lot of characters and vivacious personalities. I find it very motivational, and action-packed. Definitely worth reading, even if it's hella long.
> Gray x Juvia, Gajeel x Levy are my absolute favorite, but I also like Natsu x Lisanna, Erza x Gerard, Lucy x Loki and Elfman x Evergreen

As an aside: Did you really think I would make you search through the links?
[Skip Beat] [Sword Art Online]  [Cardcaptor Sakura] [Persona 4] [Once Upon a Time] [Fairy Tail]
But still read/ watch all of them.


And while you read/ watch those, I have my own list to plod through. =_="

Site redesign
So in the middle of writing this post (which was itself in the middle of doing a chemistry lab report, which was in the middle of writing for Camp NaNo, which was in the middle of reviewing neurobiology notes, which was in the middle of doing that lab report) I redesigned the look of the blog, which is long overdue. Hope you like it!

~Minerva Wu